Brenhinoedd y Saeson

Brenhinoedd y Saeson (also Brenhinedd y Saesson) is the medieval title of a Middle Welsh annalistic chronicle.[1] The name means 'the kings of the English'.

It is known from two medieval manuscripts:

  • London, British Library, Cotton MS Cleopatra B V, written at Valle Crucis Abbey around 1330. It was copied by the same scribe who wrote the continuation of Brut y Tywysogion in Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales, Peniarth 20. The chronicle is incomplete and finishes in 1198.
  • Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales, MS. 7006D (Llyfr Du Basing, 'The Black Book of Basingwerk'), written in or soon after 1461 (where the chronicle ends). The principal scribe was the poet Gutun Owain, who died c. 1500, and whose datable manuscript output lies between 1456 and 1497.

Brenhinoedd y Saeson is closely related to the chronicle known as Brut y Tywysogion, known in two version named after the manuscripts Peniarth 20 and Oxford, Jesus College 111 (The Red Book of Hergest). Brenhinoedd y Saeson's main source is the Latin chronicle related to Annales Cambriae from which the two versions of Brut y Tywysogion derive. But it also includes material drawn from English sources. These include a version of the Annals of Winchester, William of Malmesbury's Gesta Regum Anglorum and (indirectly) Henry of Huntingdon's Historia Anglorum. It also draws on materials from the Welsh Marches, including a version of the annals known from the Breviate of Domesday manuscript (London, National Archives, MS E. 164/1) which also contains the so-called Breviate Chronicle (known as the B-text of Annales Cambriae).

As a result, Brenhinoedd y Saeson contains more material relating to the English kings than the two versions of Brut y Tywysogion.

The annals in the Black Book of Basingwerk are dependent on the Cotton Cleopatra version up to the latter's final entry in 1198. They then draw on both the Peniarth 20 and Red Book of Hergest versions of Brut y Tywysogion to 1282. The continuation of the Peniarth 20 Brut y Tywysogion is the source for the years up to 1331, after which the material is probably the work of Gutun Owain himself.[2]

  1. ^ Smith, J. Beverley. "Historical Writing in Medieval Wales: the Composition of Brenhinedd y Saesson". Studia Celtica. 42: 55–86. eISSN 2058-5098. ISSN 0081-6353.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).